Interview: Dana DeLorenzo Has a Lot of Rage Left in ‘Ash vs. Evil Dead’ Season 3

Interview: Dana DeLorenzo Has a Lot of Rage Left in ‘Ash vs. Evil Dead’ Season 3

The home video release of Ash vs. Evil Dead, Season 2 is just around the corner. In celebration of that fact, we got to speak with the cast who let us in on their characters’ respective journeys during this season and in the season to come. Warning: There is a slight spoiler warning for those of you who have yet to catch up on Ash vs. Evil Dead, for some reason.

In Season 2, Ash and the gang are forced to leave Jacksonville and travel to Ash’s home town of Elk Grove, Michigan. There, they confront Ruby, only to find that she too is now a victim of evil and in need of Ash’s help. Former enemies become reluctant allies as Elk Grove soon becomes the nucleus of evil.

Throughout the season Kelly (DeLorenzo), is taking her first steps to forging her own path, becoming a vicious fighter under some guidance from Ruby (Lucy Lawless). By the start of Season 3, we will find that Kelly is on a more proactive path than her friends. But will that be a good thing or a bad thing?

Legion of Leia: By the end of Season 2, Ash and the town of Elk Grove are, I guess, copacetic with each other now. He’s no longer Ashy Slashy to them. And [Bruce Campbell] told me that he has taken over his father’s shop. Are you sticking around to help him out?

Dana DeLorenzo: If we know anything about Kelly, the last thing she’s going to do is work in a hardware store again. [Laughs] Kelly has always marched to the beat of her own drum; she’s not one of those conventional types. Ash and Pablo are living the dream — Ash has the store and Pablo has his “Fish and Chips” — they’re perfectly content. They’re living out their days eating turkey burgers and watching West Wing. Kelly, on the other hand, she’s a warrior without a war. Now that she’s found her purpose, it’s not easy to reintegrate herself back into society. She still hasn’t gotten the revenge by which she was so fueled. For her, she’s not satisfied until she has a string of canopy lights with Deadite heads all over her balcony.

Kelly actually goes to Detroit and becomes this bouncer at a bar. A very aggressive bouncer who clearly gets a little bit too angry over the smallest things; she’s always looking for that fight.

If you caught it at the end of Season 2, Kelly doesn’t look happy at the parade. She knows that there’s no way evil is going to be done, that it’s not going to come back. I think she’s just trying to stay in the fight because she wants to be ready when it does come back.

Shocker. Spoiler alert! Evil comes back. [Laughs] It comes back for Ash in such a ferocious, unexpected way with so many twists and turns. I’m excited for the audience to see Season 3.

LoL: That makes me think of the party/possessed Delta episode where Pablo says something to make Kelly realize that she’s dealing with some heavy shit, and Kelly ends up being angrier and more ferocious for the rest of the season. Then she started bonding with Ruby as a result.

DL: Right. When they went back in time to save Pablo, the 1980s Ruby killed the Ruby that became friends with Kelly. The last thing that (Good) Ruby said to her was “Forge your own path.” That has been the theme for Kelly. Then 1980s Ruby came back and told her “Why follow when you should lead?” and they did a quick cut back to when Kelly was in that blood tank fighting herself.

DL: Then again, Kelly is fiercely loyal. She’s bound to Ash and Pablo. Ash has saved her life; she’s not going to just abandon them. But at the same time, she’s the one who’s constantly tired of sitting around waiting for something to happen — Let’s take action — and that’s why she went off with Ruby in the first place.

She does forge a path. She knows that they’re all strong individually, obviously, but they’re stronger together. But there are some things that come up that makes her think “How long is she going to put up with Ash’s ‘plans’?” Eventually, she’s going to say “Hey, let’s do my plan and see how that works.” That might cause some tension.

We’ll see how [forging her own path] goes, whether that’s good or bad for her in the end. But at least she’s following her need for revenge. That’s one thing you can say about Kelly. She’s not going to back down.

LoL: Since Kelly will become a more capable warrior, will she get to pick up a signature weapon? What will be her weapon of choice in Season 3?

DL: Well, y’know, Kelly has always wanted a flamethrower. [Laughs] Her greatest weapons have always been unconventional because she’s so quick on her feet. You’ve seen her with the deli slicer in Season 1 and then the meat tenderizer in Season 2, she can really get out her rage! When you’re pulverizing a Deadite head, that’s not only a bicep workout but it really [Laughs] just gets the rage out.

I can promise you in Season 3 that there is another unconventional weapon that is so perfect; I’m smiling to myself just talking about it. It made me so happy to use. I’ll let that one be a surprise. [Laughs]

LoL: Now let’s talk about your fight with the puppet Ashy Slashy.

DL: That little felt f*ck. [Laughs]

DL: First of all, it was a dream come to fight with a puppet. With how insane the show is, on the day of filming we don’t have time to do a bunch of takes. When dealing with blood rigs and weapons, we have to keep moving fast. I actually had to learn how to puppeteer on the day. Until Ashy Slashy jumps off Kelly’s hand, that was all me. I did get some advice from Bruce, because who’s better than anyone at fighting with your own than Bruce Campbell? I have to say the it was so much fun even though there was a bunch of technical stuff. [Laughs] Usually, you have to hit your mark, you gotta be in the frame, as the actor. All of a sudden it’s like, “Hey, can you smash the puppet here and not here?” Like a quarter of an inch.

I’m like, “Does the puppet get his own trailer?” I feel like Ashy Slashy should have his own spin-off at this point. He’s that great of a character.

But yeah, I will say that some of the awkward things was the one with the bed pan. The puppeteer was lying next to me, hiding her arm underneath my back, and then dunking my head into the bed pan… That’s the beauty of the show. So many things are awkward, yet so fun. We’re doing a show about a guy with a chainsaw arm, of course this is happening. Who can say they got body slammed by a puppet? Me!

LoL: Pretty much the entire cast got drenched in bodily fluids. I mean, you got dunked into a pan of piss!

DL: Right! And in that bar scene in the very first episode of Season 2, I was just covered in blood. I go to Anna from the art department — because I see the blood rig and gallons of blood — and say, “Oh that’s going to be a lot of blood for today.”

And she said, “That’s not for today, that’s just for you.”

I was like, “Um! How much blood are you planning to dump on me in this scene?!”

She goes, “Um, well I can tell you that I made 85 Liters.” That’s 26 gallons of blood was put on me just for that scene! I asked [Robert Tabert] if I was in the blood Hall of Fame yet, and he was like, “No. Bruce had 400 gallons dumped on him in Evil Dead 2.” I think I’m getting close, though, since the blood tank. And then you get Bruce getting covered in colon matter. I mean, yeah, there was quite a bit.

It’s always exciting because the sick, twisted minds of our brilliantly creative team of people, the crew mates and everyone…the things they can come up with to turn into splatter matter to throw on you never ceases to amaze me.

I will tell you this as a teaser — and I’m being very serious — out of everything you’ve seen on the show, perhaps the most disgusting thing…no, not perhaps, THE most disgusting splatter matter that will come out and cover someone on the show on Season 3. I’m getting a little gaggy just thinking about it! So brace yourself.

LoL: Last question. Kelly and Pablo. I just talked about this with [Ray Santiago] about this. Will they get closer in Season 3?

DL: It’s a bit of a roller coaster. Kelly shows up with a new friend named Dalton [played by Nicholas Brown], who has ties with Sumeria and has the whole history. They are very much kindred spirits because Dalton is on the same level as Kelly in a lot of ways. It does cause an interesting sort of rift between Pablo and Kelly until the stakes get raised even higher. And then you see what happens when push comes to shove. I can say that it goes through every emotion on every level, and I’m very excited to see fans’ reaction to it.

The home entertainment release of Ash vs Evil Dead: Season 2 will be available Tuesday, August 22, 2017 on Blu-ray and DVD for $43.99 and $34.98, respectively.

Christina E. Janke

Christina is the co-host of “Intro to Geek” on Shauncastic and Editor-in-Chief at Agents of Geek. Her love of all things Mass Effect knows no bounds. She also carries an obsession with comic books, video games, and quirky television shows. Her heroes are Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Gail Simone. She hopes to be just like them when she grows up.